Silent Parade

Book 4: Detective Galileo Series

by Keigo Higashino

Genres: International Crime & Mystery; Police Procedurals

Synopsis

Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino's best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in Silent Parade, a complex and challenging mystery—several murders, decades apart, with no solid evidence.



A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned out house. There's a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn't indicted, he returns to mock the girl's family. And this isn't the first time he's been suspected of the murder of a young girl, nearly twenty years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Detective Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases.



The neighborhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient but the people with all the best motives have rock solid alibis. DCI Kusanagi turns once again to his college friend, physics professor, and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo, to help solve the string of impossible-to-prove murders.

Release date: December 14, 2021

Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Print pages: 304

Sample

PART ONE


I regret to say I was the very last person to notice what was going on.

—JOHN DICKSON CARR, SHE DIED A LADY


1


Glancing up at the wall clock, he saw that there were only twenty minutes to go until ten o’clock. Think I’ll call it a night. Yutaro Namiki looked around the restaurant. It was almost empty—only a couple middle-aged women were left. When they came in, one of them had said something about how nice it was to be back. Yutaro Namiki sneaked a peek at her. The woman was certainly not one of their regulars. He had a vague sense that he recognized her but he could just be imagining things.

Right about then, the woman announced that she wanted to pay her check. “Coming,” called out Machiko, Yutaro’s wife, who was standing beside him, washing dishes.

Yutaro heard the woman say, “Thank you. That was quite delicious.”

“Thank you for coming,” Machiko replied. “I hope you’ll come again.”

“I’m sure we’ll be back soon. Actually, I’ve been here before. It was quite a long time ago—maybe five or six years ago.”

“Oh, really?”

“There was this amazingly pretty waitress. We ended up chatting and she told me she was the owner’s daughter. I seem to remember that she was still in high school. Is she well?”

Yutaro was busy in the kitchen, putting away the knives, but his hand stopped in midair. He knew that hearing his wife’s response to the offhand inquiry would only cause him pain, but he couldn’t help straining to listen.

“That was my daughter. She’s doing fine.” Machiko sounded perfectly relaxed. She was keeping her feelings well hidden.

“Oh, good. Does she still live at home?”

“No, she’s moved out.”

“Really? She seemed such a well-adjusted kid. Not like mine. They’re getting older but they still look to us for everything. I’m getting sick and tired of it.”

“Oh, I don’t know. That has its own charms.”

“‘Lucky the house with a child to spoil,’ you mean?”

“Exactly.”

He heard Machiko and the woman heading for the exit. There was a rattling sound as someone pulled the sliding door open. “Thank you very much. Good night,” he heard his wife say.

Putting down the knife he was holding, Yutaro walked around the counter and out into the restaurant. Machiko had taken down the noren curtain over the front door and just come back inside.

Their eyes met and she cocked her head slightly. “Something wrong?”

“No. I just couldn’t help overhearing.” Yutaro scratched the back of his head. “You really kept your cool. I know it can’t be easy.”

“It’s no big deal. I’ve been dealing with customers for years. That’s the business we’re in, after all.”

“I know, but still…”

Machiko leaned the curtain pole up against the wall and turned to her husband. A petite woman with a small face, she’d always had a penetrating gaze, even as a young woman. It was hard not to flinch when she made eye contact.

“Haven’t you accepted it yet?”

“Accepted what?”

“The fact that Saori has gone. I’ve come to terms with it. Since you spend all your time in the kitchen, you may not realize it, but people talking about Saori the way that woman did—it happens all the time. It’s the same for Natsumi. She never makes a fuss about it because she’s come to terms with it, too.”

Natsumi was the younger of the Namikis’ two daughters. She was a sophomore in college and helped out at the restaurant when she had the time.

Yutaro stood there, saying nothing.

“Look, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with you holding on like you do. I’m just saying that you don’t need to worry about me.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Can you tidy up the kitchen? There’s something I’ve got to do upstairs.” Machiko pointed up at the ceiling. The family lived on the second floor above the restaurant.

“Sure, no problem.”

“See you later, then.” Machiko started climbing the stairs in the back corner of the restaurant.

Yutaro shook his head feebly. He wasn’t in the mood to go straight back to work, so he pulled up a chair and sat down. He could feel his back rounding into a slouch. Women are so much stronger than us! It was something he felt acutely now—and had felt countless times in the past.

Saori had been their firstborn. A big-eyed baby with glowing pink skin. Yutaro had long been convinced that he wanted his first child to be a boy, but that particular prejudice evaporated the instant Saori was born. She was the apple of his eye. No, she was more than that: He was ready to lay down his life for her.

Machiko was an integral part of running Namiki-ya, as their restaurant was called, so the restaurant became Saori’s nursery. When the restaurant was busy, the regulars would often pick up Saori and bounce her on their knees.

Saori had been a healthy child and adored by everybody. All sorts of people from the neighborhood would greet her on her way to kindergarten. She would always return their greetings in her piping voice. Yutaro felt a surge of pride every time someone congratulated him on Saori’s good manners.

Saori had been popular at elementary school and junior high school. When her homeroom teacher came to visit Machiko, she had said that “what made Ms. Namiki special was that she was nice to everyone, cheerful, and never made a fuss even when things got difficult.”

Saori’s test scores were not that good, but neither Yutaro nor Machiko were overly concerned. Saori was basically a serious and kind person who almost never caused them any grief or worry. She was also a lovely big sister who liked taking care of Natsumi, who was three years her junior.

Outside of school, Saori had one shining talent: She could sing. She’d liked singing as a very young child, but as the years went on, she started to display signs of exceptional talent. No matter how difficult a song was, she only needed to hear it once to memorize it, and she was never out of tune. That was when Yutaro first heard the phrase perfect pitch. Saori, people told him, had it.

Saori got to display her talent at the neighborhood street festival that was held every autumn. While the main event was a grand parade with costumes and floats, there was also a singing contest, which the locals all looked forward to. Saori first took part as a fourth grader when her rendition of “My Heart Will Go On,” the theme song of the movie Titanic, had amazed the audience. It was the first time he had seen his daughter really perform.

After that she was roped into performing at every autumn festival, becoming something of a local celebrity. The singing contest always attracted a good crowd, with plenty of people there specifically to hear Saori.

As she got older, Saori started helping out in the restaurant during the summer holidays.

Some of the more cynical customers would ask her what she was doing, helping out in a fusty old place like Namiki-ya. Didn’t she know that a beautiful girl like her could make a lot of money working in a hostess club in central Tokyo? Even her parents had to admit that she had grown into a beautiful woman. She was like a flower in bloom; her presence alone was enough to transform and brighten the atmosphere of the restaurant. She attracted more and more customers to the place as people associated Namiki-ya with her.

When Saori was about fourteen, a man named Naoki Niikura came to the restaurant. His family, who were very well-off, were well-known in the neighborhood. As a young man, he had attempted a career as a musician, he explained. While that never quite panned out, he had plenty of connections in the music business. He switched his focus to the business side and now he owned several music studios in central Tokyo and was always looking for fresh talent. He went on to list a few of the singers he had discovered.

“Your daughter has what it takes to be a professional singer. I’d like you to let me manage her,” Naoki Niikura said to Yutaro and Machiko.

Although Yutaro was aware that Saori enjoyed singing, the idea of her becoming a professional singer had never occurred to him. The offer came as something of a bolt from the blue. He was rather flummoxed and Machiko, his wife, seemed to feel the same way.

After he left, the two of them discussed Niikura’s proposal. They both wanted Saori to have a “normal” life, but they agreed that they should ask Saori her opinion.

As soon as Saori heard Niikura’s proposal, she announced that she would love to take a stab at becoming a pro. She had kept her ambitions to herself because she thought her parents would be opposed to the idea.

If it was what she wanted, then that was the end of the matter. As far as Yutaro was concerned, they should encourage her to follow her dream, and they agreed to let Niikura manage her. If it didn’t work out, then it didn’t work out. They could regroup when the time came. Even if Saori failed to break through, the experience would stand her in good stead for whatever she decided to do next.

Natsumi, their younger daughter, was thrilled. Just the thought of Saori performing in front of a big audience was enough to get her excited.

Saori started taking lessons from Niikura while continuing to attend high school. Luckily for the family, her tuition was completely free of charge.

“Oh, don’t worry about paying me for the lessons. After we’ve launched Saori’s career and she’s become a big star, I’ll just charge her a hefty management fee,” was what Naoki Niikura said whenever the subject of money came up. A fan of John Lennon, Naoki cultivated the same trademark look: long, lank hair and little pebble glasses. He was a warm, good-natured soul and not in the least snobbish about his privileged background.

He was, however, a stern taskmaster. “I do my best in the lessons, but Mr. Niikura never says anything nice about me,” Saori often grumbled. Niikura wasn’t shy about setting strict rules for his protégée, either. “You don’t need that smartphone of yours. It will just get in the way of your singing career,” was a warning he never tired of giving her. Hearing that convinced Yutaro that he had made the right decision in putting his daughter into Niikura’s hands. Niikura was telling her the same home truths he believed himself.

Saori eventually graduated from high school.

“I think now’s the right time to get Saori to sing for this producer guy I know,” Niikura announced cheerfully, when he turned up at the restaurant just after the turn of the year. Saori was nineteen years old at the time.

It was just two weeks later that it happened. Saori went out in the early evening and didn’t come home even as it got later and later. Becoming increasingly anxious, her parents made repeated calls to her cell phone. No one picked up.

The Namikis contacted everyone they could think of, starting with the Niikuras, but no one had any idea where their daughter was. By the time it was after midnight, they could no longer bear the anxiety and contacted the police.


Copyright © 2018 by Keigo Higashino